Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristi Burkhalter
Hi Kristi, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
People are my passion and spreading aloha and sunshine are two of the cornerstones of my life’s mission.
Professionally, I am a seasoned business owner with a multi-faceted background spanning healthcare, business, theatre and not-for-profit work. As a lyric-coloratura soprano I‘ve enjoyed performing operatic literature & roles all over. I’m a licensed speech-language pathologist of some 28 years and divested myself of my statewide company around 11 years ago when our youngest daughter was 4. I married together those two niches & enjoyed a career focused on professional voice users neonate with feeding disorders & those living with neurogenic differences & disorders of communication.
Personally, I have been dating my beloved husband, Tab, for 32 years and we’ve been married for 29 years. We live in Maryville with our 3 precious young ladies, Abbie (18), Mandi (16) and Austyn (15) and two adorable dachshunds, Pretzel and Hundley. Our family is the center spoke on our life’s wheel and when we’re not pouring into our team members, community and businesses, you’ll find us cheering on our girls at their regattas, boating or cooking with them, or traveling as a family together around the globe.
I hope I reflect to others the grit, grace, joy & bounce that has been extended & exemplified to me along my journey as a student of life. I’m a firm believer in multigenerational mentorship & I pray that I pay forward to others the pearls & nuggets of wisdom that my patient & beautiful mentors have infused into me.
Our most recent adventure is owning Island Fin Poke – Farragut. We’ve had the pleasure of traveling to the Hawaiian Islands for decades for both business and pleasure. Our girls treasure their times in the islands and learning the Polynesian culture through their exposure to and study of hula, out-rigging, surfing, music, arts and crafts and cuisine…particularly poke!
When our girls’ boats qualified to race at the USRowing Youth National Championships in Sarasota, FL in June, 2023 the team was famished one oppressively hot afternoon after they took a run at the course. Our nationally ranked TriStar rowing athletes expend such a tremendous amount of energy and everyone was particularly starving for a protein heavy meal of burgers or steaks that sweltering attention….wellllll, not our family so much!
For us, it was too hot to intake heavy, difficult to digest proteins and sides. At the time, our youngest daughter was 12 and she said, “Guys, we’re by the sea. Wouldn’t it be perfect if we could find some yummy poke?” We jumped on her suggestion and less than one mile from our hotel was Island Fin Poke with ratings and reviews that were out of this world.
We ventured in and were immediately enamored with the fresh, clean, nutrient-dense incrediBOWL food, feel and family (ohana) vibes…just like the poke shacks where we grabbed wholesome poke at back on the islands! We were immediately captivated, or should I say hooked!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Owning & exercising one’s gifts can be a daily exercise in faith & guts, frequently with little daily ‘reward’. Any journey in life or in business ownership has it’s unique bumps, curves and valleys which can lead to rewarding views atop those mountains. At Island Fin Poke-Farragut, our ohana’s sweet surf-shack rides those waves just like everyone else.
The restaurant industry is one of discernment where guests expect quality ingredients, exemplary service and appealing atmosphere. We are humbled to have earned our community’s trust because of our unwavering commitment to our 1) clean, protein-packed and flavor-filled, sustainably sourced ingredients, house made sauces, and cane sugar sweetened beverages, 2) unique fast-casual blend of Hawaiian and southern hospitality and 3) laid back, surf-shack vibes with great feels that our guests long to escape to. These are some of the reasons we were so grateful to be voted by the community as Knoxville’s Best New Restaurant.
Opening during a time of economic uncertainty is kin to the ebbs & flows of the very ocean from where many of our proteins are sourced. Coupling this with the need to help our community embrace the extent to which family businesses form the back-bone of our local economy & guiding them to change their dining/ buying habits can still prove tricky even here in East Tennessee where we are all so intentional about rallying around one another.
Educating our community about what Hawaiian inspired poke is has taken some repetition. We still have precious guests who come into our sweet-shack underscoring to us that they only want cooked chicken….! All of our mouthwatering proteins are in fact cooked, with the exception of our tofu, spam and single-line sourced, decadent sushi grade fish.
Distinguishing ourselves from other establishments with similar menus was at first a concern, but as word of mouth and reviews began pouring in, we found that our clean, MSG-free, Gluten-free, Dairy-free menu offerings and house-made sauces were the most authentically Hawaiian inspired on the mainland. Coupling these flavors with our genuinely warm and attentive service and fun island atmosphere has helped our guests realize how we stand alone & how we are here to spread Aloha & sunshine to each of them.
We are constantly riding the waves of high food costs particularly because of our commitment to sourcing only the highest quality ingredients. We’ve also discovered that our guests love eating poke when the sun-shines…which it doesn’t always do in East Tennessee!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Island Fin Poke – Farragut is home to the “One bite and you’re hooked” IncrediBOWL poke bowl where everyone is ‘Ohana.
We’re on a mission in our community to spread aloha and sunshine with our exceptional food, exceptional service and exceptional dining experiences. Whether you dine with us in our fun surf-shack, grab-n-go in our convenient curb-side parking spot, order delivery through our app (which boasts quite the robust rewards program) or enjoy special gatherings & events with our fin-tastic catering options, we want to help you escape & exhale to the islands for some moments before you reengage in your routine responsibilities.
Our family loves our sweet surf-shack and we’re committed to giving back to our community’s not-for-profit organizations, schools, mission trips, athletics organizations, academic clubs and friendraising and FUNdraising for the arts. My husband & I have enjoyed the humble privilege of serving on local & regional Boards of Directors for the past 20 years across many NPOs and further partnering with them through our ‘Poke with a Purpose’ give-back days in an white to enrich the tremendous work they do within our communities brings us such great joy. We are deeply grateful to have recently been voted Knoxville’s Best New Restaurant & we hope that will translate in our ability to pass along even more blessings, aloha & sunshine to our neighbors & community partners.
We are commitment to serving clean, fresh and flavor-packed incrediBOWL food that is sustainably sourced, quick, convenient & cost efficient. IncrediBOWLS are $11 and $14. We make our yummy sauces daily and we swirl up lucious $5 Dole Soft Serves ($2.50 everyday from 3-6p). house made sauces, and cane sugar sweetened beverages.
Our clean, MSG-free, Gluten-free, Dairy-free menu offerings and house-made sauces are the most authentically Hawaiian inspired ‘ono’ (good) grinds that you’ll find on the mainland which really sets us apart.
We love showering our guests with our unique blend of Hawaiian-inspired, southern hospitality in our laid back surf-shack where guests can soak up cool vibes and escape to the islands of Hawaii for a bit. We love grabbing our Farragut, Knoxville & East Tennessee themed surf-boards off the walls so our guests can snap pictures with them & we frequently find folks Snapping away in our cool restrooms or sharing reviews on socials in front of our ‘Aloha Y’all’ mural or totems. What fun it is to bring joy, laughter & levity to others!
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I am not an inherent risk taker. Period. Yet, somehow that has not been ‘the plan’ for my life as my entire life has been and continues to be an adventurous roller coasteering daily exercise in living outside of my comfort zones! Having married a serial entrepreneur has only stretched me further outside of my comfort zones! I am a staunch believer that God created us with gifts to use and in order to fully realize our potentials, we must learn to embrace this great adventure of life and living. I hope I can live a great story which can perhaps inspire our daughters, their friends & whomever else I might have the privilege to influence, stretch out their wings in faith, boldness & confidence and take flight to literally soar!
As risk-taking is not in my inherent nature, I must daily intentionally choose to look myself in the eyes & tell myself to ‘go for it’! This can create a certain degree angst from time to time and that’s where I lean in, listen, breath, jump and build my wings as I go so I can soar rather than fall splat on my face…which, has happened more times than I care to recall, y’all! The important part is looking up, dusting off, standing up & going for it again…every…single…cotton-pickin time. I make the decision before I start anything that I’m going to succeed! And should I then get knocked back a bit or down completely, I’ve already decided to get up & go again, so I do!
Risk taking is fundamentally inherent in business ownership, but if we’re to be honest here, risks exist in every single facet of our existence, no matter one’s walk of life or vocation.
I’ve performed for audiences ranging from intimate gatherings to stadiums of 100,000, mountain biked down the side of a volcano, caged-dived with sharks, swam with dolphins in the wild, jumped off a 65 story building, repelled down mountain sides, raced yachts in both hemispheres, advocated for issues and underdogs in front of opposition more times than I can recount, ridden elephants and bathed them in the Quai River, held on to the side of a small rigid hulled zodiac boat in 6 ft tall waves along the length of the Na Pali coast, delivered three babies in three years and am now raising three teens just to name a few! Each and every time, I’ve been scared absolutely to death, but I dug deep, took a breath, said a prayer and just did the thang!
Pricing:
- 2.50
- 5.00
- 11.00
- 14.00
- catering
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ifpoke.com/en-us
- Instagram: ifpcfarragut
- Facebook: ifpcfarragut
- Yelp: yelp.to/_cq9BDPp13
